Fbtjit cutting and pitting machine



4 Sheets-Shet 1.

(No Model.)

J. I. REHM. FRUIT CUTTING AND PIT'IIING momma.

No. 569,838. Patented Oct. 20, 1896.

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(No Model.)

J. F. RBI-1M. FRUIT CUTTING AND FITTING MACHINE.

Patented Oct. 20, 1896.

4 Sheets-Sheet 3. J. F. REHM.

(No Model.)

FRUIT GUTTING AND FITTING MACHINE. N0. 569,838.

Patented 001;. 20, 1896.

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UNITED STATES PATENT 1 OFFICE. I

JACOB F. REI-IM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FRUIT CUTTING AND PITTING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 569,838, dated October20, 1896.

Application filed December 1, 1894. Serial No. 530,573. (No model.)

To all whom, i2- mrny (IO/LL'IBJ'N:

Be it known that I, JACOB F. REHM, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a newaud useful Improvement in Fruit Cut-ting and PittingMachines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the class of machines adaptedfor dividing, preparatory to desiccating and pitting, such fruit as thepeach, apricot, plum, and the like; and it relates particularly to animprovement over a machine for the same purpose for which Letters Patentof the United States No. 517,588 were issued to me, dated April 3, 1894.

The principle of construction involved in my aforesaid former machine isthat of the pivotal oscillatingarm form of carrier for the sectionalcup, which is carried by the movement of the arms carrying the separablecupsections back and forth through the arc of a circle between the feedand discharge past the cutters. In the practical application of themachine it was found to be unsatisfactory in several particulars, all ofwhich are attributable to the aforesaid principle of its construction,by reason of which, to attain the requisite sweep of the cup-sectionsacross the cutters from the feed to the discharge, a length of the armsis required which precludes not onlythe possibility of compactness inthe structure, but renders the mechanism necessarily frail and liable toget out of order, and thus unreliable in use and ineffective. This samedifficulty is encountered in fruit cutting and pitting machines in whichthe travel of the cups is through an elongated endless path past thecutters, in the manner of a flexible conveyer formed with endlessconveyer-chains carrying buckets. Moreover, according to my said formerconstruction it is impossible to employ practically in one machine morethan one cup, whereby the operation is necessarily rendered slow.

The object of my present invention is to provide a generally-improvedconstruction of fruit cutting and pitting machine whereby the objectionspointed out as appertaining to my formerly-patented machine shall beovercome in a manner afiording a machine for the purpose of peculiarlycompact, solid, and

simple construction, rendering it expeditious and reliable in itsoperation.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows my improvedmachine by a partly broken view in side elevation. Fig. 2 is a similarview of the opposite side of the machine; Fig. 8, a section taken at theline 3 on Fig. 4 and viewed in the direction of the arrow; Fig. 4, asection taken at the line 4 on Fig. 1 and viewed in the direction of thearrow; Fig. 5, a view in front elevation of the automatic feed device;Fig. 6, a section taken at the line 6 on Fig. and viewed in thedirection of the arrow, showing the trip mechanism for controlling thefeed; and Fig. 7, a diagram of the cams as represen ted on a fiatsurface.

A is the body of the machine, which may be cast entire in one piece, andis preferably of the form shown, involving a vertical plate flanged atits base, as shown at .r, and along its back, as shown at x, the flangesso being curved in a forward direction toward their upper end, wherethey terminate in bosses 51?, above which the plate is extended to forma bearing -r, and below which are formed, at opposite sides of the bodyof the plate, flanges describing almost complete circles and havingtheir outer edges formed into corresponding cams p and p. L

B is a rotary shaft passing through the plate A at the centers of thecircular cams p and p and supported in a bearing 0, formed on the plate.I intend the shaft to be driven by a suitable motor or by foot orhandpower, means for the last -named purpose being shown in the form of acrank-wheel a on one end of a shaft in, passing through a bearing in thelower part of the plate A and carrying on its opposite end a pinion m,(see Fig. 2,) meshing with a larger idler m journaled in suitablebearings m on the base of the bed and in turn meshing with a largecog'wheel B, secured to the adjacent end of the shaft B. A cog-wheel Bis secured on the opposite end of the shaft B and meshes with anidler-pinion Z, journaled on the plate A and in turn meshing with asmaller pinion Z on a shaft Z journaled in an extension 1 Fig. 3, of theplate and carrying a circular periph orally-serrated cutter O, to makeroom for which the adjacent edge of the plate is concaved, as shown at1;. A rock-shaft 1c is journaled in the bosses oc and carries abifurcated arm '21. Between the bifurcated ends of the arm 1' isjournaled, directly over orcoincident with the cutter O, a similarrotary cutter C, the shaft 3 of which carries a pinion h", meshing witha larger idler 71 journaled on the adjacent side of the arm i and inturn meshing with a still larger and similarly-jolt rnaled idler h,which meshes with the cog-wheel B. The rearward-projecting end 2' of thearm t' carries a set-screw i for regulating the limit of downwardmovement of the arm by engaging at its upper end a stop i on theextension 'r of the plate A. (See Fig. 3.) Abifurcated arm g is boltedto the upper side of the stop 1' to extend forward therefrom, and it hasjournaled between the ends of the bifurcated portion the feed deviceD,comprising blades f, extending at uniform intervals radially from asleeve f on the shaft f, with which the blades are parallel. The sleeveis caused to resist being turned by the weight of fruit on a blade bythe tension device formed with the spring f For resiliently controllingthe upward movement of the cuttercarrying rocking arm 1', I connect withits rear exten' sion 4," one end of a spiral springi, connected at itsopposite upper end with aset-screw i working in a bearing i on the upperend of avertical bar 1' secured on the rear end of the arm g, theset-screw being provided with a wing-nut i for adjusting the set-screwcarrying itto increase ordecrease the tension of the spring.

E is a resiliently-yielding concavoconvex stop plate supported to extendobliquely downward and oppose the feed device D by being pivoted on anarm 6, extending upward from the arm gand controlled bya spring 6,confined between the arm 6 and stop-plate and tending to force thelatter outward, the spring surrounding a guide-pin 6 extending from theback of the stop-plate through the upright arm.

On the opposite end portions of the main shaft B are fastened, to rotatewith it, heads F and F, having short arms (1 and d, respectively,extending radially from them and bifurcated toward their outer ends, thearms being shown as four in number on each head, though they may befewer or more, and equidistant apart. In the bifurcated ends of the arms(1 and cl, respectively, are pivoted at their inner ends the fingers dand d, which converge toward opposite sides of the plate A at theirouter ends, where they carry the separable halves d and d of cups G.Springs d bear against the outer sides of the radial fingers d and (1toward their outer end, being suitably extended for the purpose from thearms F and F, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4. The finger cl adjacent to eachhalf (1 of each sectional cup G carries, extending at a right angleoutward from its extremity, a trip-stud c and into the path of thesetrip-studs there projects the lower section 0 of a jointed lever H, theupper section not which is fulcrumed at w and bears at its lower endagainst a stud to or stop behind it on the section 0'. On one end of theshaftfof the feed device D is a loose disk I), eccentric-ally connectedby a link I) with the upper end, of the lever-section c and carrying apivotal dog b heaviestat its outer extremity, as indicated at in Fig.6,

to afford to its opposite hook end a tendency to engage with the spurs aof a spur-pinion a, secured rigidly upon the shaft f, the spurscorresponding in number with the blades f of the feed device D.

- At I is shown a V-shaped feed-trough sup ported in inclined positionto direct the fruit P to be cut and pitted, and which may be peaches,apricots, or the like, to the feed device D.

The operation is as follows: By turning the shaft B, as through themedium of the crankwheel at, in the direction toward the cutters G and Cthe latter are rotated in the directions indicated by the arrows in Fig.3 by their described gear connections with the main shaft, and which arepreferably such as to cause the upper cutter C to rotate at a somewhatfaster speed than the lower cutter C. With the rotating shaft B theradial spring-controlled fingers d and d are also rotated and with themthe on p-sections d and d These latter are gradually separated or spreadapart by the shape of the circular cams p and 19, against which thefingers bearresiliently under the influence of their controllingspringsas each cup G approaches the feed device D and until it reaches the gapafforded by the omitted arc sections of the cams, on reaching which,immediately after passing the feed device, their springs force themtogether to clamp the fruit, say, a peach, (but not sufficiently far tounduly squeeze it owing to the provision of the nose-pieces u at theinner ends of the fingers,) which is fed to the on p in the followingmanner: The peaches are supplied to the feed-trough I and run down ittill the one in advance rests on a blade f of the feed device D. Vhenthe trip-stud c on a finger d strikes the lower section of thetrip-lever H, in clearing the latter it turns the lever in the directionto partially rotate the disk I), and with it the dog 19*, which, byengaging a spur of the spur-wheel a partially rotates the shaft f tobring the blade f, on which a peach is resting, into a horizontal orsomewhat below a horizontal position. This forces the peach against thespring stop-plate E, where it is held or clamped till the trip-stud onthe next succeeding cup-section d encounters the trip-lever H. Then thefurther turning of the shaft f lowers the blade f, against which theleading peach partially rests, to or toward a vertical position andreleases the peach from the clamping effect of the plate E, permittingit to drop into the cup G, meantime brought into position to catch it,and to that end having its sections separated to their utmost limit. Thenext succeeding iOO teases ti peach will then have rolled upon theprecedingly adjacentblade fand he clamped against the stop-plate E. Asshown in Fig. 3, the feed device D is supposed to be just undergoingpartial rotation, and one peach is represented as in the act of fallinginto a cup while the peach preceding it is on its way on a blade f,(which has not yet reached the horizontal or somewhat below thehorizontal position referred to,) to be clamped against the plate E andheld there till the next succeeding cup shall trip the feed to releasethat peach. It may also be stated in this con neotion that the purposeof the described jointed construction of the lever H is to cause thelower section 0 to yield, should the operator inadvertently turn theshaft 13 in the wrong direction, under the impact of a tripstud c inpassing it and thus avoid turning the shaft f and consequent operationof the feed device. IVhen the fruit has fallen into a cup G, by thecontinued rotation of the latter it is almost immediately brought to thegap in the cams, (shown by the space in them in Fig. 7,) when thesprings of the cup-sections force them together to firmly clamp thefruit, and while it is so held the continued motion of the cup carriesthe fruit between and past the rotating cutters C and C. These dividethe fruit in halves, the cutter 0 yielding in an upward directionagainst the resistance of the spring 2' which is overcome by theunyielding pit or stone to make room for the passage of the latter. Theaction of the rotary serrated disk cutters is, besides severing thefruit, to discharge the pit or stone in a forward direction, and thisaction is the better insured by the faster mot-ion of the upper cutter.As soon as the out has been-extended quite around the fruit tocompletely sever it the fingers d and d, carrying the cup in which thefruit is contained, again encounter the cams 19 and p, which gradually,in the continued rotation of the fingers, spread them apart, thusseparating the cup-sections, till, when they reach about the position ofthe lowermost of the two cups represented in Fig. 3, the fruit-sectionsdrop outinto a basket or other suitable receptacle. (Not shown.) Fromthe point at which a cup drops its sectional fruit contents till itagain approaches more or less near to the point of receiving anotherpeach or the like I prefer that the form of the cams shall be such as topermit the springs (Z to close the cup-sections, which are opened, asdescribed, when the cup has reached its receiving position. In thismanner each of the series of cups in turn receives its load, clamps thefruit, and carries it between the cutters,which sever it with a smoothout into sections, dislodge and discharge the pit or stone, anddischarge the fruit-sections; and, as will readily be appreciated, theaction of the machine is rapid, reliable, and accurate. Of course thedimensions of the cups may be varied according to the size of theparticular species of fruit they are designed to hold; but theirconstruction adapts them to operate equally well on different sizes ofthe same kind and even of different kinds of fruit.

The details shown and described of my improved fruit cutting and pittingmachine are the best known to me and are believed to be best adapted forthe purpose of the machine. I do not, however, wish to be understood asintending to limit my invention to the particular details, for they maybe variously departed from, or some of them may be altogether omitted,without thereby effecting a departure from the principle of myinvention.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof codpcrating rotary cutters, of a rotary shaft, a cup formed inseparable sections carried by the shaft through a circular pathconcentric with said shaft and ext-ending between the cutters, and cammechanism for opening and holding open the sections at different pointsin said path, substantially as described.

2. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating rotary cutters, of a rotary shaft carrying near itsopposite ends codperating members of pairs of radially-extendingresilient fingers, each pair carrying acup formed in separable sectionsand said cups rotating with the shaft through a circular path extendingbetween the cutters, and cam mechanism in the path of said fingers forseparating the members of the pairs thereof to open and hold open thecup-sections at different points in said path, substantially asdescribed.

3. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating rotary cutters, of a rotary shaft carrying near each ofits opposite ends a radially-extending series of arms having pivotallyfastened to them spring-controlled fingers carrying at their outer endscup-sections forming cups rotating with the shaft through a circularpath extending between the cutters, and cam mechanism in the path ofsaid fingers for forcing and holding them outward against the resistanceof their controlling-springs and thereby separating the cup-sections atdifferent points in said path, substantially as described.

4. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating peripherally-serrated cutters C and C, of a rotary shaftB with which the cutters are geared, heads F and F near opposite ends ofthe shaft and having radial arms d and (Z, springcontrolled fingers andd pivotally connected with said arms and carrying at their outer endssections 61 and d forming cups II rotated by the shaft in a circularpath extending between the cutters, and cams p and 19' against whichsaid fingers bear resiliently under the tension of theircontrollingsprings, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating rotarycutters, of a rotary shaft, a cup formed inseparable sections carried by the shaft through a circular pathextending between the cutters, cam mechanism for opening and holdingopen the sections at different points in said path and an automatic feedfor the fruit provided with trip mechanism actuated from a cup-sectionin traversing said path, substantially as described.

6. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating rotary cutters, of a rotary shaft, a cup formed inseparable sections carried by the shaft through a circular pathextending between the cutters, cam mechanism for opening and holdingopen the sections at different points in said path, an automatic feeddevice for the fruit, comprising a rotary shaft having blades extendingfrom it and provided with means for rotating it, and trip mechanismactuated from a cup-section in traversing said path to operate saidmeans to partially rotate the blade-carrying shaft, substantially as described.

7. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating rotary cutters, of a rotary shaft carrying near itsopposite ends cooperating members of pairs of radially-extendingresilient fingers, each pair carryinga cup formed in separable sectionsand said cups rotating with the shaft through a circular path extendingbetween the cutters, trip-studs on said fingers, and cam mechanism intheir path for separating the members of the pairs of fingers to openand hold open the cup-sections at different points in said path, a feeddevice comprising a rotary shaft having blades extending from it andprovided with means for rotating it, trip mechanism engaging with saidmeans and extending into the path of said trip-studs, and aresiliently-supported clamp-plate opposing said feed device,substantially as described.

8. In a fruit cutting and pitting machine, the combination with a pairof cooperating rotary cutters, of a rotary shaft carrying near itsopposite ends cooperating members of pairs of radially-extendingresilient fingers, each pair carrying a cup formed in separable sectionsand said cups rotating with the shaft through a circular path extendingbetween the cutters, trip-studs on said fingers and cam mechanism intheir path for separating the members of the pairs of fingers to openand hold open the cup-sections at different points in said path, a feeddevice comprising a rotary shaft having blades extending from it andcarrying a spur-Wheel and, loosely, a disk carrying a dog to engage thespur-wheel, a trip-lever linked eccentrically with said disk andextending into the path of said trip-studs,

and a resiliently-supported clamp-plate opposing said feed device,substantially as described.

9. Afruit cutting and pitting machine comprising, in combination, abodyAform ed with circular cams p and p and carrying a rotary shaft 13,cooperating rotary cutters C and O geared to said shaft and supported toyield one with relation to the other, cooperating members of pairs ofradially-extendin g resilient fingers bearing against said cams, eachpair carrying a cup G formed in separable sections and said cupsrotating with the shaft through a circular path extending between thecutters, trip-studs on said fingers, a feed device comprising a rotaryshaft f carrying blades f on a sleeve f, a spur-Wheela on said shaft anda disk I) thereon carrying a dog (7 a trip-lever H connected by a link bwith the disk and extending into the path of the tripstuds, aresiliently-supported stop-plate E opposing said feed device, and aguide-trough I leading to the feed device, the whole being constructedand arranged to operate substantially as described.

M. J. FROST, J H. LEE.

